Windsor's Northwest Park A Varied And Majestic Spot

Northwest Park, in Windsor, is 473 acres, and operated by the town of Windsor.… (Richard Messina, Hartford…)

March 18, 2011|By Peter Marteka, Nature's Path & Way To Go

This might get me a one-way ticket to the funny farm.

But there is a place in Windsor — only a few miles north of the capital city — where visitors can spend the whole day hiking 12 miles of trails. Trails that travel through a deep evergreen forest where piney smells waft through the air and hundreds of pine cones lie scattered on the ground. Paths that undulate along sandy bluffs overlooking a scenic reservoir. And trails that travel past old tobacco barns sitting silently at the edge of fields, seemingly waiting for the summer harvest.

Am I losing it? Did I just imagine this place? No, Northwest Park is real, and it is 473 acres of just about every ecosystem imaginable. There are old farm fields, bogs, vernal pools, ponds, deep ravines with brooks, old and young forests, swamps and reservoirs. And with every twist and turn of old farm roads there seems to be a new path to explore.

There are 10 marked trails, varying in length from a quarter-mile to 1 1/4 miles. The marked trails make up nearly 7 miles, with the unmarked trails and old farm roads making up the remainder. And if you want to explore the entire park, including a nature center and the John E. Luddy/Gordon S. Taylor Connecticut Valley Tobacco Museum, plan to bring a picnic lunch and make a day of it.

The trails are well-marked, giving visitors the distance along with walking time for each. I found myself exploring the southern portions of the park first. A half-mile "bog" trail takes visitors along a Braille trail around a picturesque bog. An interesting sign pointed out that the bog is as acid as orange juice, and the Native Americans once used sphagnum moss as diapers because it can absorb 100 times its weight. Red-winged blackbirds danced on the branches, welcoming spring with their "Conk-a-ree" calls as ducks scattered nearby at my approaching footsteps.

The trail merged with the white-blazed "hemlock" trail, where huge evergreens shade the snow-filled valley. The trail then connects with a path known as Dolliver's Crossing, in memory of Dick Dolliver, honoring his years of volunteer service and "deep love" of Northwest Park. The trail passes a pond with beaver dams and huge dead trees rising from the depths.

My favorite trails are the ones that run from an old bridge abutment north along the undulating and hilly shores of Rainbow Reservoir — a section of the Farmington River. A yellow-blazed "wetland forest" trail connects with the pink-blazed Rainbow Reservoir trail and has not only tremendous views of the river, but also of the surrounding hillsides.

A half-dozen tobacco barns stand on portions of the property, with the fields turned into grasslands for the grasshopper sparrow, an endangered species that nests on the ground.

A reader who suggested this visit, in the vein of Roy Rogers, said "Happy trails to you." And until we meet again, Northwest Park — because it will take more than one visit to see all of its happy trails.

Take I-91 toExit 38 and right on Poquonock Avenue (Route 75). Take a left on Prospect Hill Road and a right on Lang Road at the traffic circle. Visit http://www.northwestpark.org fora color map.